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Development and Implementation of Sargassum Early Advisory System (SEAS)

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Development and Implementation of Sargassum Early Advisory System (SEAS) Development and implementation of Sargassum Early Advisory System (SEAS) By Robert K. Webster Ph.D. candidate, Marine Sciences Department [email protected] Dr. Tom Linton Professor, Marine Science Department [email protected] Texas A&M University at Galveston, P.O. Box 1675, Galveston, Texas 77553 ABSTRACT hardship, since their annual budgets have little or no room for The Texas Gulf Coast consists of 367 miles of coastline, unforeseen expenditures. To assist beach management efforts, primarily sandy beaches. The slight slope of these beaches scientists at Texas A&M University at Galveston have been creates many large expanses of beach where the public can investigating the use of satellite imagery to forecast Sargas- enjoy a variety of activities such as beach combing, surfing, sum landings along the Texas coastline. This Sargassum Early swimming, and surf fishing. Communities that manage these Advisory System (SEAS) is designed to give coastal managers areas rely heavily on tourism as a primary source of income. as much warning as possible, allowing them to adjust their Texas beach tourism generates approximately $7 billion per allocation of resources for the management of Sargassum year, according to the Texas General Land Office’s (TGLO) landings. SEAS model uses satellite imagery from Landsat website (http://www.glo.texas.gov). Public use of these beaches Data Continuity Mission (LANDSAT) satellites to track the can be severely restricted by the periodic mass landings of movement of Sargassum as it approaches each sector along the free-floating plant Sargassum, commonly referred to as the Texas Gulf Coast. During 2012, a total of 38 advisories seaweed. These Sargassum episodes often occur with little or were sent out to coastal managers along the Texas Gulf Coast. no warning. They can last for weeks at a time, usually during Of those, 12 predicted Sargassum landfalls in their respective the prime tourist season, and hence they negatively affect the areas. All of the 12 experienced significantSargassum landfalls economies of the regions. Beach managers have relied on within seven days of notice. There were five overcast flyovers emergency funds to assist in relocating heavier-than-normal that we were not able to give possible landfall advisories; of Sargassum from the water’s edge. This creates an unexpected those, three experienced significantSargassum landings. argassum is a holopelagic brown agement along the Texas coast has had algae that derives its name from ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: to deal with massive periodic landings the small, gas-filled bladders that Sargassum sea wracks, Sargassum of Sargassum. These landings often S rafts, Sargassum slick, Sargasso Sea, serve as flotation devices (Dickson 1894). come with no warning, and they can last One of the first documented sightings of Holopelagic, Vegetatively, Pods, for weeks at a time. The economies of Sargassum occurred when Portuguese Weedlines, Windrows, Pneumato- the coastal regions of Texas rely heavily sailors, sailing to the New World with cyst, Sargassum lines. on tourism. Therefore, if an unexpected Christopher Columbus, noticed the plants Article submitted 26 August 2012, Sargassum inundation occurs during the floating on the ocean surface (Dickson revised and accepted 25 March 2013. tourist season, tourist activity can be se- 1894). The sailors termed the floating verely curtailed, resulting in an adverse plants “salgazo” because the algae’s floa- economic impact to the area. Beach tation devices reminded them of a small and Greening 1984). Sargassum’s move- managers have had to rely on emergency variety of grapes native to their homeland ment is controlled by surface currents funds to relocate the Sargassum to less (Dickson 1894). From this term, the (Gower and King 2008). As segments populated locations along the beach. common name Sargassum was derived. of Sargassum break away, the currents Because of the possibility of increased The two most common species of float- and winds carry them in a multitude of coastal erosion the Texas General Land ing Sargassum are sargasso natans and directions. With some being directed to- Office does not allow the complete sargasso fluitans (Conover and Sieburth ward the coast via surface currents, these removal of Sargassum from the beach 1964). These two species are very similar, sections eventually wash ashore on the (GLO 2002). The raking and removal of and many weed lines contain both spe- Texas Gulf Coast beaches, where they are Sargassum from the Texas beaches can cies. They reproduce vegetatively and termed Sargassum “wracks” (Colombini cost public entities along the Texas Gulf remain completely pelagic during their and Chelazzi 2003). Coast more than $2.91 million per year. lifecycle (Hemphill 2005). Most of the As far back as the earliest issues of In an attempt to provide beach manag- Sargassum found in the Gulf of Mexico Texas coastal newspapers, beach man- ers an early advisory system for Sargas- originates from the Sargasso Sea (Stoner Shore & Beach Vol. 81, No. 3 Summer 2013 Page 1 enter the Caribbean Sea, the majority of the surface water enters through the southern Windward Islands of Grenada, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia Passages (Gy- ory et al. 2013). The surface current then continues westward, and the Caribbean Current creates surface transportation for the Sargassum as it transverses the Ca- ribbean Sea (Stoner and Greening 1984; Gyory et al. 2013). The surface currents turn sharply northward and enter the Gulf of Mexico as a narrow boundary current along the coast of the Yucatan Penin- sula (Gyory et al. 2013). This Yucatan Current flows directly into the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatan Channel and then enters the Loop Current. The Loop Current’s flow varies, sometimes form- ing a direct path to the Florida Current and sometimes stretching as far north as the Mississippi River Delta (Gyory et al. 2013). The Loop Current eventu- ally returns to its direct configuration by Figure 1. Shaded relief images showing monitoring sectors and ground truth slowly pinching off its extension to form locations along the Texas Gulf Coast. Image courtesy of AOL search. a large, warm-core ring, called an eddy, that propagates westward at speeds of Table 1. Occurrences of Sargassum complaints found approximately 1-3 miles per day (Gyory in local newspapers. et al. 2013). Eddies provide the surface energy needed to move the Sargassum to Number of Sargassum the near coastal waters of the Mexico and Location Year references Valid Invalid Texas Gulf Coast. Galveston 1866-2008 1810 165 1645 Corpus Christi 1930-1977 842 85 757 STUDY AREA South Padre/Brownsville 1900-1977 645 17 628 For the implementation of the SEAS Valid references included actual complaints and/or observations of Sargassum on beaches. project, the Texas coast has been divided into three monitoring sectors: the upper sum landings, a scientific and manage- for specific searches including seaweed, coast, the central coast, and the lower ment team at Texas A&M University at which became invaluable in developing coast. These sectors, which cover the Galveston developed a proactive strategy a Sargassum cycle. Texas Gulf’s coastline, begin at Sabine to replace the reactive strategy tradition- Pass and continue south to Brazos San- Sargassum System Loop ally used by beach managers. Using tiago Pass in South Padre Island, as seen The SEAS team has expanded its recent advances in the analysis of satellite in Figure 1. imagery analysis to include the Atlantic imagery and other data, the team was able Ocean, including the Caribbean Sea, and The upper sector’s central study area to give beach managers up to a two-week found evidence of Sargassum movement includes Galveston, the Bolivar Penin- notice of Sargassum landings along the from the Sargasso Sea through the Carib- sula, and Surfside. The central sector Texas coastline. The initial part of the bean Sea and into the Gulf of Mexico. includes Corpus Christi and Port Aransas. management strategy utilizes satellite Continued analysis of the temporal po- The lower sector covers South Padre imagery, data from weather buoys, and sition, oscillation, and intensification of Island. Each sector has ground-truth loca- the application of a Sargassum Predic- the Azores high-pressure system over the tions where the SEAS team collaborates tive Model. Using these tools, the team Sargasso Sea reveals a strong correlation with local beach managers and mu- has implemented the Sargassum Early between those traits and the Sargassum nicipalities who provide in situ data. The Advisory System (SEAS). landing cycles reported in local historical SEAS team keeps in close contact with Coastal newspapers, including newspaper records (e.g. the Galveston these organizations and individuals by Galveston Daily News, were used to build Daily News, which has been continuously sending updated images of nearby coastal historic data sets of cyclical heavy land- published since 1842). This shift in the waters. The local contacts provide ground ings of Sargassum on the Texas coast. Azores high-pressure system represents truthing data by documenting Sargassum During the last 150 years, many of these the initial energy required to send pulses landings through emails. Ground-truthing newspapers have been kept on microfilm of Sargassum into the Caribbean Current, data include photographs from beach for ease in data collection. Several years thereby starting the loop system. Histori- cams, field support, and a research vessel ago, the Galveston newspaper, in par- cal observations and numerical models that reports the coordinates of Sargassum ticular, had volunteers create index files indicate that as surface current flows wracks offshore. Page 2 Shore & Beach Vol. 81, No. 3 Summer 2013 Figure 2. Satellite imagery with large Sargassum slick present direction of wind and surface currents are calculated to get an average drift direction. A LANDSAT image from Galveston’s near coastal waters, taken 18 May 2012. Data available from the U. S.
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